My Two Cents
Wednesday, 18 December 2013 17:36

Hill Street Blues, new Universal catalog BDs, TCM Festival 2014, Enterprise: S4 & a Clone Wars fix!

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All right, we’ve got a bunch of good news for you here at The Bits today.

First though, our own Russell Hammond has updated the Release Dates & Artwork section will all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links.  As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon in the same session after clicking to them through our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we really appreciate it!

Now then... any Hill Street Blues fans out there?  Shout! Factory has just announced the release of Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series on DVD on 4/29 (SRP $199.99)!  The 34-disc box set will include all 144 episodes of the series, along with new interviews with the creators and cast, including Steven Bochco, Dennis Franz, James B. Sikking, Bruce Weitz, Alan Rachins, Gregory Hoblit, Dennis Dugan, Jeffrey Lewis and more.  You’ll also get a commemorative 24-page book with photos, liner notes and an essay by TV critic Tom Shales.  You’ll find cover art below and the title is now available for pre-order on Amazon.  [Read on here...]

While we’re talking Shout!, their Scream Factory label will release Beneath on Blu-ray on 3/25.

Meanwhile, Warner Home Video has set Atlantis: Season One for Blu-ray and DVD release on 3/18.  We expect the latest seasons of  Person of Interest, The Vampire Diaries and Revolution to street on both formats sometime in March as well, because the already-released Person of Interest: The Complete Second Season, The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season and Revolution: The Complete First Season are being re-solicited to retailers on Blu-ray and DVD on 2/4/14.

Any why I’m not sure, but Warner is releasing the Paramount catalog title Vanilla Sky on Blu-ray on 4/15, along with Rock Star.  Of the two, Rock Star isn’t a bad title at least, but here’s hoping they’ll get to better classic films like War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide one of these days.

Warner and the BBC will release Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor, which is this year’s Christmas special and the end of the Eleventh Doctor’s run on the series, on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/4.  Extras will include a trio of featurettes (Behind the Scenes, A Tribute to Matt Smith and Tales from the Tardis).  The classic Doctor Who: The Moonbase also arrives on DVD only on 2/11.

In catalog BD news this afternoon, Universal has set Far and Away, Fried Green Tomatoes, Somewhere in Time and – at long last – the Coen Brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty for Blu-ray release on 3/4.  In addition, Universal is releasing a slate of catalog titles on Blu-ray for Easter on 3/4, including An American Tail, Big Fat Liar, A Simple Wish and Harry and the Hendersons.

Speaking of Universal, TCM has just announced their 2014 Classic Film Festival for Hollywood (on 4/10-13) and two of the big highlights are screenings of the newly restored prints of the film noir classics Touch of Evil (1958 – directed by Orson Welles) and Double Indemnity (1944 – directed by Billy Wilder)!  These films simply must be released on Blu-ray Disc as soon as possible.  Fingers crossed.  More on the festival can be found here at the official website.

For you Star Trek: Enterprise fans today... you may recall that way back in March, when I first reviewed Star Trek: Enterprise – Season One on Blu-ray, I was invited to suggest ideas for content that I – as a longtime fan of the show – would love to see on future seasons.  One of my biggest suggestions was a reunion/roundtable discussion with the show’s writing staff, talking about all their ideas for the show and where the series might have gone had it been given a full seven seasons.  So then yesterday, series co-creator Brannon Braga tweeted this picture...

Enterprise Season 4 - Writer's Room Reunion

That is indeed the very Writer’s Reunion I suggested, about to be shot, thus making me very, very happy.  What’s more, VAM producers Roger Lay, Jr. and Robert Meyer Burnett tell me that lots more discussion of “season five and beyond” ideas will be included in the documentaries on the Season Four BD set.  A Zatoichi BD box set and now this?  What can I say?  December’s been pretty good to me so far!  I can’t wait to see this when it’s finally released on Blu-ray in 2014.

Also today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just Last Vegas for Blu-ray and DVD release on 1/28.  Extras will include commentary with Jon Turteltaub and Dan Fogelman and 6 featurettes (Supporting Ensemble, The Redfoo Party, Four Legends, It’s Going to Be Legendary, The Flatbush Four and Shooting in Sin City).

Finally today, some of you may recall that people were having audio sync issues with Disc 2 of Warner’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 5 on Blu-ray.  Warner has arranged an exchange program – call 800-553-6937 to arrange shipment of a fixed disc.

Here’s a look at the DVD cover art for Shout!’s Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series, along with BD cover art for Sony’s Last Vegas, 20th Century Fox’s Homeland: The Complete Third Season and 12 Years a Slave (street dates TBA), and Warner’s Vanilla Sky and Rock Star

Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series (DVD)    Last Vegas (Blu-ray Disc)    Homeland: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray Disc)

12 Years a Slave (Blu-ray Disc)    Vanilla Sky (Blu-ray Disc)    Rock Star (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

 

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